Today was Benchmark Day once again at my lovely elementary school. Never mind that our last benchmark was three weeks ago, and I had exactly eight days of instruction between then and now. Never mind that only one in five of my kids had passed the benchmark last time around, and this test included all of those topics PLUS rounding, estimation, and money (which I was supposed to teach in eight days). Never mind all that. As my principal likes to say, those are excuses, and we have no time for that.
Scanning the answer sheets for the benchmark test was, in a word, heartbreaking. Though I haven't scanned all of the sheets yet, so far just five of my 64 students have passed. Since most of the remaining sheets are from my tier 3 kids--the lowest kids who get the test read aloud to them--it seems unlikely that that number is going to go up anytime soon. Seeing that pop up on my computer screen was just awful. I felt like I had been making progress with my kids over the last two weeks, but seeing that come up made it seem like I was moving them backwards.
While I'm going to get a chance to look fully at the data on Thursday, I already know a few things. First, about a third of the test was stuff that I either didn't have time to teach or was a long-response question that the bulk of my kids couldn't read. When you focus in on the two-thirds of the test that I did attempt to teach, things look better. That's encouraging, that I seem to be able to impart some knowledge when given the time, and I can only hope that as the year goes on and we go over these concepts again and again, they'll start to stick.
But the thing that I'm most proud of is that my kids tried so much harder this time around than they did three weeks ago. Even on that constructed response that was so devastating, kids were using the strategies I had taught them, underlining key words, and for the most part, giving it their best shot. Did they know what they were supposed to add? No. But they knew that they were supposed to add, so at least I've taught them that. With the 13 kids who test with me in my homeroom--the other nine are tier 3 students who test with the special ed teacher--I continually refused to pick up their tests because they weren't taking their time and checking. It was really encouraging to see them going back and actually showing their work, and as Maya, one of my hardest-working (and hilarious) students, put it as she finally handed me her test: "Ms. L, I made some adjustments." Zoe, another one of my girls, raised her hand in the middle of the social studies test to call me over. One student from another class had just had a meltdown in the hallway, which distracted all of my kids as he screamed his way into the behavior intervention room. Zoe called me over and said, "Ms. L, the noise made me circle the wrong answer, but you told me to never erase my work. What should I do?" Part of what I've been trying really hard over the last few weeks to teach is the process of math, and seeing so much work written out on their benchmarks--even when much of it was incorrect--shows me that it's working.
As I start to think about my next unit plan--since this weekend does bring about the long-awaited four-day weekend known as Fall Break!--my biggest non-academic push is going to be investment. I think that I've finally started to get my kids, especially in my homeroom, invested in me. For the first time, the boys in my homeroom who are behavior challenges are behaving better for me than they are in their other classes (Nya, the biggest behavior challenge in my homeroom, remains a mystery. She was having a phenomenal day today, and then after lunch, the devil eyes appeared. Hate when that happens). It hasn't taken much--a well-timed phone call home, an invitation to stay after school for tutoring, or simply sitting next to a student who was frustrated and intimidated by his social studies test until he felt comfortable enough to keep going. Instead of just drawing me pictures, some of my girls now write me notes wanting to get to know me better and leave them on my desk. Kids ask every day if they're allowed to stay after school. But now I need to shift that investment to math, and my kids' responsibility for their own education. I need to convince them that they need to keep going even when it's hard, that the most rewarding things in life don't come easily, that learning about rounding and place value and money is important for their future lives. This is my big goal before Thanksgiving Break: get my kids invested in their success in math class, which will hopefully bring about some better results than today's benchmark test.
That, and fix my literacy block, which is the definition of a hot mess.
But to stay focused on the positives, the best moment of my day, courtesy of Marshall, one of my most frustrating students because he usually seems to just not care about anything. He was the student who I sat with today to silently coax him through his social studies benchmark. And after that, I noticed that Marshall was decidedly more chipper in class, sitting up straight in his chair, eyes bright, raising his hand for nearly every question. This is a trend that's been happily building for about a week now, but this afternoon's class was the best yet. He participated with his group and didn't blow up when the kid across the table from him started running his mouth at him. And at the end of the day, as I passed out the notice to send home to parents reminding them that fall break is upon us, he looked up at me and said:
"I wish we didn't have fall break because I want to come to school instead."
And that, right there, made it worth it.
Scanning the answer sheets for the benchmark test was, in a word, heartbreaking. Though I haven't scanned all of the sheets yet, so far just five of my 64 students have passed. Since most of the remaining sheets are from my tier 3 kids--the lowest kids who get the test read aloud to them--it seems unlikely that that number is going to go up anytime soon. Seeing that pop up on my computer screen was just awful. I felt like I had been making progress with my kids over the last two weeks, but seeing that come up made it seem like I was moving them backwards.
While I'm going to get a chance to look fully at the data on Thursday, I already know a few things. First, about a third of the test was stuff that I either didn't have time to teach or was a long-response question that the bulk of my kids couldn't read. When you focus in on the two-thirds of the test that I did attempt to teach, things look better. That's encouraging, that I seem to be able to impart some knowledge when given the time, and I can only hope that as the year goes on and we go over these concepts again and again, they'll start to stick.
But the thing that I'm most proud of is that my kids tried so much harder this time around than they did three weeks ago. Even on that constructed response that was so devastating, kids were using the strategies I had taught them, underlining key words, and for the most part, giving it their best shot. Did they know what they were supposed to add? No. But they knew that they were supposed to add, so at least I've taught them that. With the 13 kids who test with me in my homeroom--the other nine are tier 3 students who test with the special ed teacher--I continually refused to pick up their tests because they weren't taking their time and checking. It was really encouraging to see them going back and actually showing their work, and as Maya, one of my hardest-working (and hilarious) students, put it as she finally handed me her test: "Ms. L, I made some adjustments." Zoe, another one of my girls, raised her hand in the middle of the social studies test to call me over. One student from another class had just had a meltdown in the hallway, which distracted all of my kids as he screamed his way into the behavior intervention room. Zoe called me over and said, "Ms. L, the noise made me circle the wrong answer, but you told me to never erase my work. What should I do?" Part of what I've been trying really hard over the last few weeks to teach is the process of math, and seeing so much work written out on their benchmarks--even when much of it was incorrect--shows me that it's working.
As I start to think about my next unit plan--since this weekend does bring about the long-awaited four-day weekend known as Fall Break!--my biggest non-academic push is going to be investment. I think that I've finally started to get my kids, especially in my homeroom, invested in me. For the first time, the boys in my homeroom who are behavior challenges are behaving better for me than they are in their other classes (Nya, the biggest behavior challenge in my homeroom, remains a mystery. She was having a phenomenal day today, and then after lunch, the devil eyes appeared. Hate when that happens). It hasn't taken much--a well-timed phone call home, an invitation to stay after school for tutoring, or simply sitting next to a student who was frustrated and intimidated by his social studies test until he felt comfortable enough to keep going. Instead of just drawing me pictures, some of my girls now write me notes wanting to get to know me better and leave them on my desk. Kids ask every day if they're allowed to stay after school. But now I need to shift that investment to math, and my kids' responsibility for their own education. I need to convince them that they need to keep going even when it's hard, that the most rewarding things in life don't come easily, that learning about rounding and place value and money is important for their future lives. This is my big goal before Thanksgiving Break: get my kids invested in their success in math class, which will hopefully bring about some better results than today's benchmark test.
That, and fix my literacy block, which is the definition of a hot mess.
But to stay focused on the positives, the best moment of my day, courtesy of Marshall, one of my most frustrating students because he usually seems to just not care about anything. He was the student who I sat with today to silently coax him through his social studies benchmark. And after that, I noticed that Marshall was decidedly more chipper in class, sitting up straight in his chair, eyes bright, raising his hand for nearly every question. This is a trend that's been happily building for about a week now, but this afternoon's class was the best yet. He participated with his group and didn't blow up when the kid across the table from him started running his mouth at him. And at the end of the day, as I passed out the notice to send home to parents reminding them that fall break is upon us, he looked up at me and said:
"I wish we didn't have fall break because I want to come to school instead."
And that, right there, made it worth it.
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